1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to communication systems and, more particularly, to a communication server with a communication mediator and a voice recognition unit that may be used to engage the communication mediator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Government agencies (e.g., emergency response units, fire or accident response units, law enforcement agencies, terrorist response teams, medical response teams, etc.) often are unable to provide a coordinated response to public safety incidents due to interoperability between the communication systems (e.g., the mobile voice systems) of each responding agency and between the communication systems of each responding agency and any data systems maintained by each responding agency. Specifically, this lack of interoperability affects a responder's ability to communicate and collaborate with other responders irrespective of agency affiliation and irrespective of the type of communication system employed by the other responders. This lack of interoperability also affects a responder's ability to quickly and dynamically identify additional responders (e.g., by individual expertise or by organization) that should respond to the public safety incident and to quickly and dynamically assemble an emergency response team. Lastly, this lack of interoperability affects the ability of responders to access relevant data irrespective of what agency maintains the desired data.
U.S. patent application of Blossom et al., Ser. No. 11/014,313, filed Dec. 16, 2004 and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a communication server with a communication mediator unit that sets up communication sessions between responders operating under different, potentially non-compatible communication systems. While the idea of a communication server with a communication mediator does allow for interoperability between communication systems, there remains a need to improve the speed and efficiency with which a communication mediator can be engaged from in the field.